Saturday, 19 January 2013

SUN ARAW - Heavy Deeds (2009, Not Not Fun)

"Sun Araw is pretty hip right now, Heavy Deeds
made it onto a surprising number of “Best of 2009” lists (mine
included). Sun Araw is one of the most original/innovative artists I’ve
heard as of late. I’m probably overstating things, as his music is
arrestingly simple, but that’s the beauty of it.

Sun Araw is the
solo project of Long Beach musician Cameron Stallones, who plays guitar
for Magic Lantern. What draws me Sun Araw is this overwhelming sense of
humidity to the music. I’m not one to use meteorological terms when it
comes to describing music, but if you give it a listen I’m fairly
certain that “humid” is as close to hitting the nail on the head as it
comes. You can try to break the music down to its components: the
gnarly guitars, the commanding, perpetual bass, the never-ending organs,
the trippy vocals, but in actuality what you have is fairly simple;
funk music.

This isn’t a modern update of the funk of the 70s. What Stallones has captured on Heavy Deeds
is like a faded polaroid; a personal, nostalgic memory of an essence.
Everything is oversaturated, and bleeds into everything else. The
vocals are so drenched in effects, you’d be lucky to make out a single
line of words per song. But that doesn’t matter in the least, as their
emotion is clear as day.

A certain amount of patience is required
with these songs, you have to let them consume you. It’s pretty easy
to let that happen with the thick bass. This is my rip of the CD, which
features a bonus track that was originally the Sun Araw side of a 12"
split. It doesn't really fit with the album, it actually does a great
job at disrupting the flow. I just couldn't exclude it however. The CD
is limited to 500 copies, the LP to 600 copies."